Steve Jobs' Planned Dream House: An Inside Look

Earlier this summer, we noted that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had won a nearly six-year battle with local preservationists to replace a 14-bedroom Spanish Colonial Revival structure he acquired in Woodside, Calif. with something more, um, appropriate.

This Old House - Steve Jobs' style

Woodside Town Council/Gizmodo

Now we know what Jobs intends. It turns out he wasn't kidding. The conceptual plans submitted to the Woodside Town Council reveal "more of a small, private retreat than any towering glass-and-steel tech chapel or totem of wealth," according to the tech blog Engadget, which reposted some of the drawings on its website. According to Engadget:

"While the pared down modernist home will occupy the same basic location as the existing George Washington Smith-built manse, nothing will remain of the estate's former grandiosity. In lieu of the 8 bedroom/9.5 bathroom main residence, Jobs has opted instead for an unassuming living/working space that's half the size. No chauffeur's cottage, no cook's cottage, and no tennis courts. In fact, when compared something like Larry Ellison's $70 million feudal Japan themed estate located right up the road, Jobs' new digs seem downright monkish - if not Buffettian."

Local preservationists wanted to save the home, designed by the
architect George Washington Smith. The house was originally built for
the copper magnate Daniel C. Jackling in 1926. The blog quotes Austin-based architect Christopher Travis, who reviewed the site plan, saying that it "definitely shows unnatural restraint for a person of wealth."